Corporate governance general counsel

What is higher than general counsel?
Chief Legal Officer
However generally speaking, General Counsels tend to focus on legal and compliance matters, whereas Chief Legal Officers typically have a broader range of responsibilities including legal, strategic and executive functions..
Being general counsel and being CCO are very different things.
A lawyer, ethically, has a duty to give sound legal advice and to represent the client's interests “zealously.” The compliance officer's mission is sub- stantially different: it is to do what- ever it takes to prevent and detect misconduct…

Best practice: The GC should assist the board and senior management team in identifying core ethical values of the corporation, and establish themselves as the lead ethical advisor to assist in creating an ethical environment for all of a corporation's business dealings, both internally and externally (with employees/

In addition to supporting the executive leadership of an organization, the general counsel is an advisor to the board on legal matters that affect the board's fiduciary responsibilities. Something a general counsel and the board have in common is to serve in the role of guardians over an organization.

The GC is accountable to the corporation's shareholders and other stakeholders, represented by the board of directors. While the GC has only one client, he or she must consider a wide array of liabilities, discrete business operations, and all past, present and future projects a corporation undertakes.

What Is The GC’s Role?

The GC’s main role is to provide legal advice to the corporation; however, the GC often plays other important roles within the corporation as well. These othe…

Who Is The GC’s Client?

Ultimately, the GC represents the corporation; not the CEO or management. The GC is accountable to the corporation’s shareholders and other stakehol…

The GC and Good Governance

A key objective of a corporation is the sustainable and profitable growth of shareholder value and concomitant achievement of its operational, managerial and fina…

Corporate Advocate and Business Advisor

The pros:This allows the GC to be fully immersed in the corporation’s business and specific transactions from the outset, which offers several adv…

Director

The pros: The GC’s job is to provide advice and recommendations on issues engaging corporate interest, and the board’s job is to make decis…

Corporate Informant to Management and The Board

The pros: The GC has a dual-reporting obligation to both the senior management team and the board of directors. Operationally, the GC generally reports to the C…

Corporate Secretary

The pros:The role of corporate secretary is a natural fit for the GC, as it puts the corporation’s top lawyer in a position of advising the directors on discha…

Corporate Ethicist

The pros: A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative or program helps a corporation strive for social accountability to various stakeholders, including t…

What is a general counsel in the boardroom?

The other document is the survey, “General Counsel in the Boardroom”, from a partnership of Diligent Corporation and Corporate Counsel

Collectively, the two surveys provide boards of directors with a strong sense of standards and guidelines they should consider when monitoring the effectiveness of their company’s legal function

What is a good corporate governance?

Good corporate governance requires a system of checks and balances that facilitates accountability among the corporation’s management, business units and board of directors

The GC’s role includes managing the development and maintenance of the relationships between these various corporate stakeholders

What is the GC’s role?

Who is responsible for a corporate governance (GC)?

The GC is accountable to the corporation’s shareholders and other stakeholders, represented by the board of directors

While the GC has only one client, he or she must consider a wide array of liabilities, discrete business operations, and all past, present and future projects a corporation undertakes

General counsel is responsible for ensuring that company executives, management, and board members do not violate their fiduciary duties. This is initially addressed in the bylaws which outline duties and procedures to address infractions, alleged and actual.